360 year old torii
One early summer day, we grabbed a guide book and headed to Komae City (狛江市), in the southwest part of Tokyo near the Tama River. As part of the walk, the guidebook had us go through Izumi Shrine (伊豆美神社) to check out the 350+ year old stone torii (鳥居). We were looking for something really impressive so it took us a while to actually find what we came to see.
While the stone torii gate looks impressive from the angle you see above, I was on the ground to take this photo. I’ll have to post a photo of what it looks like from any other vantage point to show you its less than ordinariness in a future entry.
Below is the description, for those who can read Japanese, of this torii gate. I looked at the torii, read the sign, looked at the torii again, and then wondered what all the fuss was about.
The sign basically says that the torii is 2.65 meters (under 9 feet) in height. It was built out of stone in the Edo Period, 1651, and is the oldest one left in the city (no surprise there). There is also a brief bio on the person who donated it, Ishigaya Sadakiyo (石谷貞清), who was apparently a famous warrior/governor.
The most interesting thing, in my opinion, about this torii is the rope (shimenawa) across the front. There are several variations, but typically shimenawa looks something like what you see in the bottom photo in this post. This one had a rare, rigid, straight style (with none of the usual white paper-gohei–hanging off of it) which I haven’t seen before or since.
